Children who spend more than four hours a day on their mobile phone perform significantly worse on school tests than those who are limited to just 30 minutes, a Japanese government survey has found. Grade scores suffered an average 14 percentage points across all subjects while the deficit rose to over 18 points in mathematics.

Cass Tech High School will become Detroit’s first International Baccalaureate diploma program, according to Detroit Public Schools. Students in the program will engage in an extended essay writing project, take a course in critical thinking and complete programs in creativity, action and service.

Fairland Elementary students are reaping the benefits of a $40,000 Oklahoma Educational Technology Trust grant that will be used to purchase new iPad Minis for third, fourth and fifth graders. In addition, the school also received professional teacher development training valued at $25,000.

Metro Nashville Public Schools’ decision not to buy new social studies textbooks when they were due to be replaced has sparked much discussion about the future of textbooks. It is evident that our leaders and educators are looking to the future and helping our students prepare for tomorrow by experimenting with and using a variety of tools to enhance the educational experience.

A popular vision of the future of education in the internet age is that teachers will become superfluous, but research suggests that the goal of students directing their own learning is still a dream and the teacher-less classroom is not as close as you think.

Voyager Sopris Learning's fourth edition of Step Up to Writing has been released for grades 3–5. The new grade band focuses on foundational writing skills, including learning basic technology skills and grade-level proficient and advanced writing skills.